It’s a win-win for residents and neighbours

Aviara, a dramatic 34-storey curved residential tower being built on a wedge-shaped site between Halifax Street and Douglas Road in Burnaby, is proof that compromise can make everyone happy.

“The reason this tower is this interesting shape isn’t just because we wanted to create something beautiful,” says Manuela Mirecki, senior vice-president of marketing for Ledingham McAllister, developer of the project, which will have its sales launch today. “It’s also for the benefit of people who will live here, as well as our neighbours.”

Aviara will be an elongated sliver of a building so that neighbours to the south can see past it to views of the North Shore. And since the convex western side will be longer than the concave eastern side, most residents will have views stretching from the Gulf Islands to the North Shore mountains.

“It was sort of a win-win architecturally for the sake of the neighbourhood and ultimately the people who will be living here,” Mirecki says.

Set back from the road in landscaped grounds, Aviara will feature a glittering glass exterior with an LED light strip running up one side the entire height of the building. The entrance, sheltered by a glass canopy, will be reached via a “floating walkway” across a reflecting pool fed by water cascading down the wall.

The bottom floors will house a lounge, fitness centre and guest suite. Above, each floor will have eight homes: two on the concave side and six along the convex side, ranging from one bedroom plus a den to two bedrooms and two bedrooms plus den. The top two floors will each contain just four homes, each with two bedrooms and a den in 990 square feet of space. At the base of the building will be three two-storey three-bedroom townhomes.

The show suite represents an 854-square-foot two-bedroom home in the Coffee palette: espresso-coloured cabinetry with light-grey wood floors. As its name suggests, Caramel, the alternative colour scheme, features caramel-coloured cabinetry and floors.

Both the kitchen and bathrooms have gleaming quartz counters, also used for a built-in desk in some units. Appliances, including the washer and dryer, are full sized. Miele appliances are standard in the penthouses and townhouses and available as an upgrade in other homes. The standard package is a KitchenAid stainless steel 30-inch five-burner gas range, Architect Series II wall oven and dishwasher, 20-cubic-foot french door fridge with bottom-mount freezer, Panasonic microwave and Whirlpool washer/dryer.

Windows stretch from floor to ceiling and wall to wall for maximum light and views. Every home will have a covered balcony. Mirecki credits Burnaby for allowing them to be larger than permitted just a few blocks west in Vancouver. “Burnaby is much more collaborative in understanding how people like to use their outdoor spaces,” she says.

Ledingham McAllister has a long relationship with Burnaby, where its previous projects include Brentwood Gate, Perspectives, Memento, Silhouette and Reflections. It also has a long history in B.C.; since 1905 it has built such landmarks as the Granville Street Bridge and the Hudson’s Bay building at Granville and Georgia.

Located in Burnaby’s Brentwood neighbourhood, Aviara will be within walking distance of the Gilmore SkyTrain station and the stores, restaurants and services along Lougheed Highway, as well as The Heights area along Hastings with its traditional bakeries, groceries, butcher shops and restaurants. For anything not accessible by foot or SkyTrain, residents will have access to two on-site hybrid cars and receive a one-year membership in the Modo car co-op program.

“I think there’s a new discovery of the Brentwood neighbourhood,” Mirecki says. “Because it has the long-standing residential community, it gives it sort of an organic sense of place. People from this neighbourhood tend to be very loyal to this neighbourhood — like there’s the Hats Off Day parade up on Hastings Street, and it’s amazing. They shut down the entire street and you can’t move. But then, I’m biased. I grew up here, I have a family here, went to university here.”

Like Mirecki, many prospective Aviara buyers have ties to the neighbourhood. “There’s a very strong old European community that immigrated here,” she says. “A lot of those folks, now that the kids have moved out, they’re saying, ‘Okay, I love this neighbourhood but my dentist, my doctor, my baker, my candlestick maker are all here.” At the opposite end of the spectrum are young couples whose parents are helping them with their first purchase. Buyers are also diverse: single women, families, various ethnic backgrounds. “It’s just representative of the Lower Mainland as a whole really,” Mirecki says.

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